Assange: 'Entire nations intercepted in total web surveillance'

London
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RT's Laura Smith held an exclusive interview with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. They discussed his new book, Cypherpunks - the Freedom and Future of the Internet, and Internet security as a whole.

While WikiLeaks founder, Assange has been ensconced in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, awaiting the chance to gain safe passage out of the country, he has been busy. He has completed and now published a book, Cypherpunks - the Freedom and Future of the Internet, talking about Internet freedom and security and how to protect them.

The 192-page book was written in cooperation with Cypherpunk friends, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann. It is based on the transcripts of the talk show recently run by Assange on RT and also incorporates many ideas that remained behind the scenes. Parts one and two of the Cypherpunks episodes of "The World Tomorrow" can be viewed here and here.

Assange says in the interview that all the necessary physical infrastructure for absolute totalitarianism throughout the Internet is ready. He told RT that the question now is whether the turnkey process that has already started will go all the way.

After stating basically that "…it is cheaper to intercept every individual rather than pick particular people to spy upon", RT asks him if there is an utopian alternative available.

He replies, "The utopian alternative is to try and gain independence for the Internet, for it to sort of declare independence versus the rest of the world. And that’s really quite important because if you think what is human civilization, what is it that makes it quintessentially human and civilized, it is our shared knowledge about how the world works, how we deal with each other, how we deal with the environment, which institutions are corrupt, which ones are good, what are the least dumb ways of doing things. And that intellectual knowledge is something that we are all putting on to the internet – and so if we can try and decouple that from the brute nature of states and their cronies, then I think we really have hope for a global civilization."

RT asks Assange about his stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy and whether he will remain there until the US drops any charges and any investigation against him.

Assange responded: "Well, I hope that there is enough political pressure and that the US government sees that it is destroying any goodwill that remains towards it as a result of its persecution and investigation of WikiLeaks and its associates. I think it really does have to drop the investigation. And you know, over the past six months in particular you can see a sort of the arrow of history – and the US DoJ and Eric Holder are going to end up on the wrong side of history. I don’t know that they want that on their record."

When asked about the reports of Assange suffering a lung condition, and whether he would be able to get medical treatment, Assange says, "You know, my particular personal condition is not very interesting. Obviously, this circumstance in the embassy is difficult. And over a longer term, I suppose, it could be very difficult. But, you know, I’ve had worse problems."

Assange sought asylum in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning on alleged sexual assault charges, for which he denies guilt, after his appeal against extradition failed. It is feared that should he be sent to Sweden, he would then be passed on to the US on espionage charges for the release of sensitive diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, that have both embarrassed and outraged the US government.